Skip to content

Download

Before you install Gentoo, get your installation media sorted. The least hassle for newcomers is the Chinese community’s Live ISO; if you’d rather use the official media, pick the nearest mirror from the list below.

Apple Silicon Macs (M1 / M2) can’t use the standard amd64 images listed on this page — see Installing Gentoo Linux on an Apple Silicon Mac.

Chinese Community Live ISO

A KDE Plasma 6 desktop Live ISO put together by the Chinese community — Chinese-ready out of the box, three languages to pick from (Simplified / Traditional / English), Chinese input methods (fcitx5 + rime). A good way to get a feel for a Chinese Gentoo desktop first.

  • Download site: https://mirror.gentoozh.org/ (overseas server, 1 Gbps with no traffic cap; access from within mainland China may be on the slow side)
  • Backup repo: https://github.com/Gentoo-zh/Live-ISO (community fork — build scripts and customizations all live here)
  • Login credentials: user live / password live / Root live
  • Hardware requirements: a 64-bit x86 CPU with AVX2 support (roughly post-2013 processors); older CPUs can’t boot this image.
  • Update cadence: recompiled and uploaded automatically every week, so it’s always a fairly recent snapshot of the system; the download site only keeps the last few releases, so go by the actual filename on the site (gig-os-DATE.iso).
  • New-release alerts: follow the Telegram channel https://t.me/gentoomirror for an automatic announcement whenever a weekly build goes live.
What’s in this Live ISO (click to expand)
  • Boots in three languages — pick Simplified / Traditional / English from the GRUB menu, and the desktop, Firefox, and input method all switch along with it.
  • Multiple boot modes — besides the normal boot, there’s “copy to RAM” (loads the whole disk into memory and runs from there, so you can pull the USB stick and it runs faster) and a “safe graphics mode” fallback, all available in three languages.
  • Chinese input methods: fcitx5 + rime — Luna Pinyin (朙月拼音) by default; right-click the input-method tray icon -> “Schema” to switch to Zhuyin / Wubi86 / Cangjie / Cantonese Pinyin, and more.
  • Open-source / proprietary GPU drivers — nouveau works plug-and-play by default; for newer cards (RTX 20/30/40/50) that need hardware acceleration, pick the “proprietary NVIDIA” boot entry, but disable Secure Boot in the BIOS first (the driver is unsigned and won’t load otherwise). For stubborn cards that won’t light up, fall back to “safe graphics mode”.
  • Graphical installer (optional) — double-clicking the “Install System” icon launches the Calamares graphical installer (it follows your chosen language) and clears up the live leftovers (boot-time autologin, etc.) after installing; for a proper install where you actually get to know the system, the official handbook is still the recommended route (see the notes below).
  • Per-machine tuning — once the system is installed, the CPU_FLAGS_X86 compile flags are generated automatically based on your CPU.

For the full feature list and configuration notes, see the mirror site’s “About” page.

Mirrors

Every node below has been tested one by one and works, and they all carry installation media for amd64 / x86 / arm64 and other architectures. Picking the nearest one by region is usually faster:

MirrorRegionDownload URL (releases/)
Tsinghua TUNANorth China · Beijinghttps://mirrors.tuna.tsinghua.edu.cn/gentoo/releases/
BFSUNorth China · Beijinghttps://mirrors.bfsu.edu.cn/gentoo/releases/
USTCEast China · Hefeihttps://mirrors.ustc.edu.cn/gentoo/releases/
ZJUEast China · Hangzhouhttps://mirrors.zju.edu.cn/gentoo/releases/
NJUEast China · Nanjinghttps://mirrors.nju.edu.cn/gentoo/releases/
SDUEast China · Qingdaohttps://mirrors.sdu.edu.cn/gentoo/releases/
HUSTCentral China · Wuhanhttps://mirrors.hust.edu.cn/gentoo/releases/
SUSTechSouth China · Shenzhenhttps://mirrors.sustech.edu.cn/gentoo/releases/
HITNortheast China · Harbinhttps://mirrors.hit.edu.cn/gentoo/releases/
LZUNorthwest China · Lanzhouhttps://mirror.lzu.edu.cn/gentoo/releases/
Alibaba CloudNationwide · CDNhttps://mirrors.aliyun.com/gentoo/releases/
NetEase 163Nationwide · CDNhttps://mirrors.163.com/gentoo/releases/
CERNETNationwide · nearesthttps://mirrors.cernet.edu.cn/gentoo/releases/
CICKUHong Konghttps://hk.mirrors.cicku.me/gentoo/releases/
PlanetUnixHong Konghttps://hippocamp.cn.ext.planetunix.net/pub/gentoo/releases/
xTomHong Konghttps://mirror.xtom.com.hk/gentoo/releases/
RackspaceHong Konghttps://mirror.rackspace.com/gentoo/releases/
aditsuHong Konghttp://gentoo.aditsu.net:8000/releases/ (HTTP)
NCHCTaiwanhttp://ftp.twaren.net/Linux/Gentoo/releases/
CICKUTaiwanhttps://tw.mirrors.cicku.me/gentoo/releases/
FreedifSingaporehttps://mirror.freedif.org/gentoo/releases/
CICKUSingaporehttps://sg.mirrors.cicku.me/gentoo/releases/
PlanetUnixSingaporehttps://enceladus.sg.ext.planetunix.net/pub/gentoo/releases/
Official media and architectures

Official download page: https://www.gentoo.org/downloads/

  • Minimal Installation CD — a minimal install disc, suited to experienced users
  • LiveGUI — a Live system with a graphical interface, suited to new users
  • Stage3 — a pre-compiled minimal userspace that includes the full toolchain and Portage; the standard starting point for building from source

Architectures: amd64 (the most common), x86, arm64, arm — see the official download page for others.

Which files to download, and how to verify them

Under the mirror’s releases/, pick your architecture (e.g. amd64/), then:

  • Install ISO: grab install-amd64-minimal-*.iso + .DIGESTS from autobuilds/current-install-amd64-minimal/; for the graphical version, take livegui-amd64-*.iso from current-livegui-amd64/
  • Stage3: grab stage3-amd64-*.tar.xz + .DIGESTS from autobuilds/current-stage3-amd64-*/

After downloading, verify against the DIGESTS file:

sha512sum install-amd64-minimal-*.iso          # compute the SHA512
cat install-amd64-minimal-*.iso.DIGESTS        # compare with the value in DIGESTS

Next steps

Once the system is installed, point Portage at mirrors closer to you (git / rsync / distfiles) — see the mirror list; for the installation walkthrough, follow the official Gentoo Handbook (AMD64).